Paper is such a standard, basic thing that it would seem differences would stem merely from quality and not from regional standards.
Turns out that is incorrect...
The EU has chosen A4 (8.3X11.7inches) as its standard.
and the US has chosen 8.5X11inches as its standard "letter" size.
Nearly the same! but with some major differences.
If you cut A4 in half you end up with A3 .... which has the SAME ratio. that means, I can make one draft of a poster and print it on any size paper, A2, A1, A4, A3 ... etc, without changing anything. Whereas with letter paper, that's impossible.
EU: 1, US: 0
But standard paper use doesn't stop there. How about I would like to punch some holes and put some loose sheets into a binder? US has a 3 hole punch that holds in the paper nice and solidly on little rings. The EU has a 2 hole punch that allows you to carefully put the papers into a binder with gigantic rings which then allows you to easily rip them apart by accident, and then, when you are angry enough, on purpose. They are governed by an international standard, and are 80 millimetres (3.1 in) ... enough to leave 4.5inches of flopping un-tethered paper on either side of the whole.
EU:1, US: 1
I wouldn't be the first to beg the US to adopt a bit of metric system or ISO standards... but given the poor choise of hole punching standard, I say the outcome of this match overall, is a solid tie.
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